counts for those regions were negligible — not more than 
five birds seen per year. 
Blocher (1933, 1933a) noted that shrikes were diff- 
cult to find after midsummer, and he put the fall de- 
parture before September. Others in northern Illinois 
made similar observations. In the period 1914-1917, in- 
clusive, Schafer’s (1917-1918) “Jast seen” dates for the 
loggerhead shrike varied from June 20 to August 16. In 
many years of observation in DuPage County, Benjamin 
Gault (1901la and unpublished notes) had very few late 
summer records for the shrike and his latest record for 
fall departure of the species was September 1. Ford et al. 
(1934) gives an average departure date from the Chicago 
area of September 18, and Oberholser (1918) gives Oc- 
tober 3 for the average departure. 
Late fall or winter departure dates may be misinter- 
preted on two accounts: (1) because loggerhead shrikes 
may occur in the north (rarely) even in winter, and (2) 
‘n late fall and winter there is a real possibility of mis- 
identification of shrikes because incoming northern shrikes 
are very similar in appearance to loggerheads (Fig. 2 
and 11). Late departure dates of October 12, November 
1, November 11, and November 13 have been recorded 
for the loggerhead shrike in northern Illinois (Ford et al. 
1934, Woodruff 1907, Oberholser 1918, Bent 1950), and 
November 9 has been recorded for the central region 
(Musselman 1930). 
Apparently the fall migration of this species has never 
been witnessed, and we can only guess as to when the 
southward flights begin. In southern Illinois our counts 
showed a marked increase about the first of August and 
remained relatively high into October (Fig. 4). Whether 
the fall counts should be interpreted as productivity or 
increased conspicuousness of the shrikes for various rea- 
sons or as an indication of migration can not be resolved 
without banding or telemetry studies. The ratio of our 
spring-to-fall counts (1.0 shrike in spring to 1.5 in fall) 
+s not indicative of the high nesting productivity observed 
in spring and summer (see under Nesting Cycle). The 
end of the fall migration is not clearly discernible in 
southern Illinois because shrikes winter there in good 
numbers. The counts do fall off abruptly in early October 
(Fig. 4), and this decline may represent the approximate 
end of the major fall migration. 
Winter Records 
Though the loggerhead shrike is a regular winter bird 
in southern Illinois, and there are some winter records 
for the species in central and northern Illinois (Fig. 8), 
there are no published banding data to show whether the 
winter population is made up of a nonmigratory remnant 
of the breeding population, late transients or winter 1m- 
migrants from another breeding population, or some 
combination of these. The absence of winter records of 
the loggerhead from large areas of the state (Fig. 8) 
reflects both the paucity of observers, especially in the 
southern third of Illinois, where shrikes are relatively com- 
10 
LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE 
Winter Records 
Dec. 1 - Feb. 1 
@ 1950 — 
A 1900-1949 
M BEFORE 1900 
oF 5 
Hah tf N 
OE wiTT ”/ | cn a VERMILIO? 
pares Ws Lee 
i TT 
ete ha 
J MORGAN SANGAMON Saas | ae 
t z Lea on E0GAR 
/ 
n EFFINGHAM 
FAYETTE | JASPER 
\ en lemwro 
MADISON 1 | ‘eae 
_ 
Boro | / 
ey 
ins CLINTON _+—— ——— 
No st CLAIR Baars « @ [ } 
WASHINGTON: 
NOREOE Bhs 
a 
eal a) 
Ae (e) s 
apes PERRY ie ¥ 
t a) FRANKLIN Ay 
R 
SA: i SMMBE GALLATIN, 
! ! ! i 
Fig. 8. — Winter records for the loggerhead shrike in I] 
nois. The three regions of the state discussed in the text < 
shown by the heavy lines. 
mon, and an actual paucity of shrikes in the northern hi 
of the state. 
In northern and central Illinois the winter picture 
shrike populations 1s complicated by the erratic occ 
rence of the northern shrike. Though the two species 
distinct biologically, they are, as pointed out in the F 
Migration section above, so similar in appearance tl 
they have been widely confused by bird students fre 
earliest times. The erroneous belief held by some stude 
that winter shrikes were likely to be the northern spec 
has contributed to a number of errors in the Illin 
literature, including the Christmas counts, but there 
no certain way to separate false records from true. | 
have, therefore, arbitrarily based our acceptance of id 
tifications on our own (not infallible) observations. 
In summarizing the Christmas count data (Fig. 
we have generally accepted identifications of loggerh 
shrikes throughout the state. In the 73-year history 
the Christmas count in Illinois, parties of observers hi 
on the average, required about 8 party hours to fin 
loggerhead shrike in southern Illinois, 60 hours in cen 
Illinois, and 558 hours in the north, In recent decé 
